INUVIK - Running into RCMP Staff Sgt. Wayne Norris in a dark alley would be terrifying. Towering well over six feet with broad shoulders and a good reach, you'd never guess by his silhouette how friendly he is. Norris has returned to his hometown of Inuvik and hopes his welcoming demeanour will build a strong relationship between the RCMP and the community.

RCMP Staff Sgt. Wayne Norris speaks to high school students at Samuel Hearne Secondary School on Tuesday morning. Norris spoke as part of the Not Us anti-drug campaign. The officer was born and raised in Inuvik and returned from Yellowknife recently to take over the Inuvik detachment. - Kira Curtis/NNSL photo

"People are somewhat apprehensive sometimes about going to the police, to strangers," Norris said while sitting in the library at Samuel Hearne Secondary School, which he attended as a teenager. "By me being here I think it allows a different approach."

Norris was born into a family of six children in 1962, shortly after the town was formed.

"I think I was probably one of the first hundred babies born in the Inuvik hospital, so lots of history here," he said, as he waited for another wave of students to talk to about the Not Us anti-drug campaign.

It was not an easy decision to come back to the town where he started his career with the RCMP as an aboriginal special constable 25 years ago. His wife is still living in Yellowknife and the city is home-base for his three children, all in their 20s.

"I was aware of the opportunity and so I talked about it with my family and everybody agreed that it was a good opportunity," he said.

However, Norris also wanted his wife to keep the job she loves in Yellowknife, since she has had to pull up stakes countless times over the years with every transfer.

"She's followed me all over my whole career so it's nice to see her doing something she enjoys," he said. "I didn't want to have her give up another job."

But he said his family completely supported the idea of him returning to where he has such deep roots to see if he could make a difference in the community.

"In my role as a policeman, to be back where I'm from is unique," he said. "My relationship with the community will hopefully enhance our ability to provide a service."

The three weeks he has been here has flown by for him, and he said he feels well received. He said one of the elders even approached him at a hockey game to tell him how grateful she was to have someone from Inuvik running the detachment.

"That's kind of what I was hoping would happen," Norris said, smiling. "I want that relationship so that my door's open, so that people can come and speak to me."

His aim now is to get out into the communities and working with the many organizations in town so that people know him, know he's friendly and know they can come to him about anything.

"A lot of issues are obviously around, substance abuse and drugs and that kind of thing," he said. "Where we really have to focus our attention on is the youth."

As the next batch of teenagers came into the room to hear him speak about drugs, he smiled and nodded hello like a friendly giant acknowledging passing wee villagers.

"I don't think at any other time in history there's been so much pressure on our young people," he said. "I think I saw four Justin Biebers in the crowd here, that's media pressure."

Norris said youth are inundated with so much media all the time, which instills an expectation for them to be something that's just not attainable.

"Compared to when I was going to high school here, you were tickled to have three channels, if you had a TV. I was 11 years old before I saw a TV," he said.

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